Word.ws English Dictionary

cruelsome

cruelsome adjective: marked by cruelness or cruelty.

Adjective

cruelsome (comparative more cruelsome, superlative most cruelsome)

  1. Marked by cruelness or cruelty.
    • Hayber was rewarded for his services in the most cruelsome manner. He was shot dead.1993, Harish Yadav, Incredible But True
    • Two days out of every three, the prisoners were guarded by a gang of ignorant and cruelsome Negroes.2008, David J. Emmick, Defending the Wilderness

Adverb

cruelsome (comparative more cruelsome, superlative most cruelsome)

  1. (informal, nonstandard) In a cruelsome manner; severely.
    • The weather is “cruelsome hot.”2015, Rodman Philbrick, Coffins

Forms of cruelsome

Adjective
comparativemore cruelsome
superlativemost cruelsome
Adverb
comparativemore cruelsome
superlativemost cruelsome

Origin of cruelsome

From cruel + -some.

Questions about cruelsome

What does cruelsome mean?
Cruelsome means marked by cruelness or cruelty.
What part of speech is cruelsome?
Cruelsome can be an adjective or an adverb.

Words near cruelsome in the dictionary

  1. cruellty
  2. cruelly
  3. cruelness
  4. cruelnesses
  5. cruels
  6. cruelsome
  7. crueltie
  8. cruelties
  9. cruelty
  10. cruelty-free
  11. cruentaren

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cruelsome (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “cruelsome.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cruelsome. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.